Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e – 05

So I was wrong – Sakura wasn’t doing anything incriminating or wrong; she’s just very shy and wants to remain an internet model without her classmates knowing. It was very odd to me how they did that scene transition that continued last week as Sakura was running away, to her trying to get her camera fixed with Kiyotaka and Kikyou. Are they suddenly friends? Why are they helping her? Unless they wanted her cooperation in return, it feels weird that she’d even ask for their accompaniment in the first place. Maybe I’m just being very cynical though and people can be kind without expecting anything in return.
I’m also surprised by how forward she is about posting photos of herself (in suggestiveoutfitsand posesby the way) if she was so shy. Does she like the attention or not? I get that some very introverted people (and some people with anxiety) like posting videos and talking to people that way, but it’s still weird to me that you would use social media as an outlet when you don’t like that interaction with people in person. I guess we all have our hobbies though and this is Sakura’s.

Unfortunately, even with Sakura’s witness and photos from the scene, it doesn’t prove who instigated the fight. Neither the Class C nor Sudou have the evidence to say for sure who started the fight; even though it’s clear that Class C have been beaten up worse than Sudou. In the end, it’s up to the student council president (Suzune’s brother), Manabu to pick a side. From the very obvious side remarks given so far, it seems like everyone is always against Class D and it wouldn’t be surprise if there was prejudice in Manabu’s decision. I’d be more shocked if he made a fair call and punished them both equally due to the lack of responsibility and evidence that suggests otherwise. Suzune is also up to represent Sudou in the trial so maybe he might choose to expel Sudou just to prove a point. They don’t seem to get along very well as siblings.

Overall, the episode was a little slow for me. There are some areas (like the scene with Sakura and her camera) that I wish they expanded upon to build the character relationships and there are some scenes (like the trial) that were longer than necessary. Kiyotaka is starting to grow on me and there are moments where his character catches me by surprise; however I can’t tell if it’s because it’s bad writing for his character; or if he’s actually someone that just wants to stay under the radar. Anyway! I’m ready for this arc to wrap up and for Manabu to make up his mind on what’s going to happen. Unfortunately I’m not that invested in Sudou nor Sakura so it makes it hard for me to care either way. I think of it as an introduction to the Class D students and hopefully Sudou isn’t expelled so that we can see more of him and how he shows his appreciation to Suzune and Kiyotaka later on for helping out.

I’m just glad that, while we the viewers may see clearly that Class C is lying, when it comes to in-universe, there’s still general logic and reasoning being used with the fact that there is still no irrefutable evidence to support Sudou’s defense of self-defense (and burden of proof usually lies with the defense, though obviously court systems differ between the US and Japan) and not having Manabu just instantly picking one side or the other; not Class C out of any personal disdain for Class D nor Class D just because they’re the protagonists here.

After all, no matter how much someone may personally dislike a defendant(s), it’s still innocent until proven guilty. It’s just easier to pick a side for us because we’re being shown most of the actual facts “behind the scenes”.

It wasn’t very clear, but did the student council president really try to smash Kiyotaka in the face? Did he have to dodge at the last second? How would that have gone over with the other council member watching (and looking pretty shocked)? If we are talking about initiating violence, here’s a clear example.

Wew at first I don’t understand what’s the deal with this guy…but then I remember that they still on school grounds so the address means they own room numbers. It means this guy a stalker,sasuga an elite school,nothing’s normal.

but it’s still weird to me that you would use social media as an outlet when you don’t like that interaction with people in person.

Might be easier to understand if you consider that it’s the presence of the other person/social situation and how others may react in that moment to what the person with social anxiety is doing that causes the discomfort and not the behaviour per-se. They do something – perfectly normal or otherwise – and then start to worry about what others are thinking and everything snowballs…

This where the some factors come into play for this character:
a) They’re taking their pin-up photos someplace where no one else is around: removing the immediate source of the anxiety.
b) Even those without anxiety tend to treat social media as if it “isn’t real”/is disconnected from reality. She would probably see it as a safe space because…
c) She’s functionally creating a character for herself: dressing and behaving completely different than she would in day to day life. Therefore, anything anyone might say that’s negative, reflects the character and not her on one end of the scale and on the other she could treat it as a release where she gets to be her “real self” and flip the bird at anyone who complains because she doesn’t know any of these people/have to deal with them.

If it weren’t for his illogical violent intimidating, Horikita would be much more interesting character. I find it difficult to take him seriously.

I believe that more than antagonizing Kyiotaka because he supports his sister, it’s because he dislikes hypocrites (which, in Horikita’s eyes, Kyiotaka declares himself to be simply by supporting Suzune). He gave Sakura quite a disgusted look as well.

I interpret the ending as Horikita saying Kyiotaka is all barf and no bite and (threateningly) prompted him to measure up to his own words. Perhaps Horikita wants to prove he is the only smart guy around.

You say Manabu and Suzune don’t get along as if Manabu illogically hates Suzune. I can’t be too sure, and maybe I’m shooting a blank at something that isn’t even there, but back in episode 2, when he thought Suzune had made a friend, he seemed surprised; the tone of his voice sounded as if he started to believe there might be hope for her yet…. that is, of course, until she denied being friends with Ayanakoji, which sunk him back into disappointment. I think he already knows of her shortcomings, and hates(which he shows through anger/irritation) that she cannot realize her own weaknesses.

What I found interesting about this episode was that it seems that Sakura have an inate sense of other people. For example, she feels comfortable with Kiyotaka (which might be due to him have no malice in his bones, and if anything he’s quite honest about things). While she doesn’t trust to be alone with Kikyou, which well… we know it to make sense.

This is almost a lesson by the elite school to Class D about the power of the kangaroo court. Chabashira-sensei surprised me by being more than neutral in the dispute between Class D and Class C. You would think with her previous attitude that she would not show up to the (kangaroo) Student Council and leave her students out to dry.

I don’t see a good outcome for Sudou unless someone spends a ton of points to alter the outcome. We’ve seen “equal punishment for both” from courts before; Class D would be on the losing end of that compromise. And once false witness works once, it becomes a working model, to be done again and again.

Really looking forward to the next episode. But this is stuff most people don’t have to worry about until they run into “the government machine” for the first time, sometimes in their 50s. To be doing this to 16-year-olds is extreme. I’m surprised most haven’t cracked under the pressure of their freshmen year beforehand.

Really looking forward to the next episode. But this is stuff most people don’t have to worry about until they run into “the government machine” for the first time, sometimes in their 50s. To be doing this to 16-year-olds is extreme. I’m surprised most haven’t cracked under the pressure of their freshmen year beforehand.

All the graduates will be part of the elite, almost guaranteed. If they can’t hack it here, then why should they be trusted with power out in the real world where they’d have to face much, much worse than this?

Remember, this school is designed to make sure that the future ruling elite is capable of succeeding, as well as being worthy of it from a group-player point of view.

From the very obvious side remarks given so far, it seems like everyone is always against Class D and it wouldn’t be surprise if there was prejudice in Manabu’s decision.

Acrtually, Class B has a cold-hearted and logical reason for helping out Class D like they did: Class C is a threat at present and Class D isn’t. Class C’s points were just behind Class B’s. Thus, Class B had every reason to get Class C penalized since Class B jumping ahead would mean Class B’s demotion. Class D was not a threat, and thus helping them out, at present at least, was not an immediate threat like Class C is.

I don’t think there’s anything strange with a shy person posting pictures of themselves online. It actually tends to remove any direct interaction. Possibly making it feel “safe”. There are most likely a few real life examples. But we’d probably find out about it from a third party.

Used to take photos in class during the days of film. I noticed that people behave differently in front of the camera. A friend even came up to me with a theory that the blitz was somehow addictive. The change can go both ways as a few outgoing people actually becomes camera shy. I’ve also seen it happen with selfies, just like Sakura’s case. So, it doesn’t have to be someone else taking the pictures.

I don’t think the transition to the scene where they are going with her to have her camera fixed is entirely out of place. I would assume they offered to go with her since they were pretty much the immediate cause of the damage and probably seeing how distressed she was.

I agree though that a lot of the scenes in the series as a whole feel jumpy and a bunch of development seems to have been taken out. I can only assume that this was expounded on in the light novel but didn’t make it into the anime because of time and budgeting constraints. The whole “help me with a confession and pretend to be my boyfriend” scene from last time was a lot more “out of left field”